Luke 19:28-38

The King and the Donkey

When 14 year old Marie Antionette rode into France in 1770 to marry the French prince, her caravan was made up of nearly 60 carriages, with over a hundred servants and nearly 400 horses!

When King Charles was crowned last May, over 4000 military personal were involved in the procession, he and Queen Camilla rode in a golden carriage and the red arrows flew overhead.

And yet the King of all the world, Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem on the back of a humble donkey. No golden carriage, no military personel, not even a horse and chariot, but on the foal of a donkey.

Was this just because Jesus’s event planning team just weren’t up to much? No, no. This happened the way it was supposed to happen, as it had been foretold hundreds of years before by the prophet Zechariah

Zechariah 9:9 ESV

9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

This coming king wasn’t going to be like all the other kings, he would be righteous, he really would bring salvation for the people but he would be humble, lowly. Not identifying with the powerful, the wealthy and the famous crowd, but identifying with the poor, the broken, the humble, the sinful.

As Jesus rode into the city that day all the people cried out Hosanna, Hosanna! Which means ‘save now, Lord!’

Jesus is the King that we all need even if we don’t quite realise it yet.

Because we were all just like that donkey once...

Completely unaware of Jesus or of our need of Him.

The donkey didn’t seek out Jesus, Jesus went and found the donkey.

John 15:16 ESV

16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

Jesus told his disciples to tell the owner of the colt ‘The Lord has need of it.’ Suddenly that little donkey had a divine purpose and calling!

2. The donkey was tethered.

Just like that donkey, Jesus needs to untie us. We might not feel like we are tethered, we might think that we don’t need Jesus to be free! People say things like ‘I don’t need your religion, I am free to do whatever I like.’ And that’s exactly the issue, being free to do whatever your heart desires is actually the very worst kind of slavery.

Kevin Macallister “I’m eating junk and watching rubbish you better come out and stop me!”

Jeremiah 17:9 ESV

9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

So just like that donkey, before Jesus frees you, you’re tied up, you’re not free to roam, you’re tethered to your own sinfulness. Only Jesus is able to loose you and set you free.

And when you become a Christian, your job is just like the two disciples in this story - Jesus will send you to go and find other donkeys who are tied up and set them free too!

3. The donkey needed to be led.

Verse 35 says that the disciples ‘brought the donkey to Jesus’. They didn’t untie him and say ‘off you go now boy, go and find Jesus’, they had to lead the donkey.

They put the bit in the donkeys mouth and the bridle over his nose and led him off.

Donkeys need to be led, and so do you. There’s only one way to Jesus and that’s to be led by the Apostles, by believing the gospel which they proclaimed, and by following the holy scriptures which they wrote.

4. They led the Donkey to Jesus.

These two disciples did their job, they took the little donkey to Jesus. And that is the job of every disciple of Jesus today - not to get the donkey to do a few jobs for them first, but to lead the donkey straight to Jesus.

That’s our job - we don’t need to teach the donkey to start behaving like a horse, we don’t need to get the donkey to smarten up a little bit first, we just have to get that donkey to Jesus!

5. They set Jesus upon the Donkey.

The disciples throw their cloaks over the donkey and then lift Jesus up onto the donkeys back.

That humble donkey was now the throne upon which the king of the whole world was sat, and the donkey led him into Jerusalem and all the people shouted and cheered and sang!

This is what happens when you become a Christian, Jesus Christ is enthroned upon your life. And you get to parade him everywhere you go - that He might be glorified!